Communicating Through Healthcare Interpreters

Author(s): Cynthia E. Roat, MPH & Elizabeth Jacobs, MDDISCLOSURE STATEMENT: All author(s), contributor(s), editor(s), and CME Office Reviewer(s) state that they do not have any financial arrangements with commercial interests that could constitute a conflict of interest.Further Author Information | Further CME Information

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The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson designates this enduring material for a maximum of 2.00AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

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The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson
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Communicating Through Healthcare Interpreters

Authors and Acknowledgements

Authors

Cynthia Roat, MPH

Cynthia Roat is a consultant and trainer on issues related to language access in health care. She is the principle author of Bridging the Gap, currently the most widely offered training program for medical interpreters in the United States. She is a founding member of the Society of Medical Interpreters (SOMI) in Seattle, is Chair of the Advisory Committee of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC), and is a national advocate for the field of health care interpreting and for language access in general. Ms. Roat has been an interpreter trainer for over twenty years, and is certified by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services for both medical and social service interpreting. She holds a Masters degree in International Public Health from the University of Washington.

Disclosure: Ms. Roat states that she does not have any financial arrangements that could constitute a conflict of interest.

Elizabeth Jacobs, MD, MAPP, FACP

Dr. Jacobs is Associate Vice Chair for Health Services Research in the Department of Medicine, and Associate Professor of Medicine and Population Health Sciences, at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She attended medical school at University of California at San Francisco, trained as a general internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellowship at the University of Chicago. After struggling to care for limited English-speaking patients during medical school and residency, she decided to pursue a research career investigating minority disparities in health care. She has conducted research documenting that provision of adequate interpreter services positively impacts the delivery of health care provided to patients with limited English proficiency, and that the provision of these services is cost-beneficial. Her research interests also include access to, and cultural specificity of, medical care delivered to minority patients, health literacy, and the role that trust in health care plays in African American and Latino patients health care decisions. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The California Endowment, The Russell Sage Foundation, and the Office of Minority Health. She is recognized as an expert on the provision of linguistically accessible and culturally competent care, and she has served on Office of Minority Health, JCAHO and AHRQ expert panels. She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and has authored 3 book chapters. In addition, she works with other investigators to design culturally specific research and teaches residents and medical students about practicing culturally sensitive medicine.

Disclosure: Dr. Jacobs states that she does not have any financial arrangements that could constitute a conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals. In addition to those listed below, we extend many thanks to Pacific Medical Clinics in Seattle, WA and to Brenda Lloyd (Beacon Hill Clinic Supervisor) for allowing us to videotape at Beacon Hill Clinic.

by Hidden | Aug 20, 2016
In the first clip session (with the Vietnamese patient), it seemed to me that the main problem clearly was that the interpreter did a lousy job even she was not a trained interpreter. I disagree with many of the answers as the authors indicated as the "correct" ones, at least based on how the clips presented the story.

by Hidden | Apr 7, 2015
Excellent resource. I feel it covered the relevant subject matter in a very practical and meaningful and memorable manner.

Communicating Through Healthcare Interpreters

This course meets general AMA PRA Category 1 CME Credit(s)TM requirements in states that have a CME requirement.

Based on information from state licensing authorities, this program meets special CME requirements in these states:

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